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AN 



ADDRESS 



PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 



ENFORCING 



THE DUTY OF EXCLUDING 



SLAVEHOLDERS 



COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 



NEW YORK. 
1833. 






H ^3 



H^ 
'dH 



ADDRESS 



Christian Brethren : 

The signs of the times plainly indicate that a change, in reference 
to slavery, must speedily take place in our republic. Loud lamenta- 
tions over the evil of human bondage have been resounded, until the 
voice of wailing and anguish makes no more impression than the mock 
sorrows of an Irish wake. Promises of amendment and gradual eman- 
cipation have been repeated until the most credulous infatuation can no 
longer be deceived by their emptiness and^anity. During this period, 
the sin of slavery has incalculably been multiplied, and the groans of 
the tortured, and the barbarity of their task-«iasters, have been infinitely 
extended. 

The most melancholy portion of all this wickedness and misery, is, 
that it has been clothed with a mask^fcWored by a christian name. 
It is indubitable, that the presenj^Jpl^nce of slavery, in the United 
States, may chiefly be imputecTto the professed disciples of Jesus, 
the Prince of philanthropists, one part>f whose divine mission it was, 
to "preach deliverance to the captives." Although all the denomina- 
tions of christians, with one or two exceptions, are culpable in this 
respect, in a higher or less degree ; and although the censure is almost 
generally applicable, yet our church is peculiarly condemnable. With 
the exception of the Episcopal Methodists, and the Friends, with some 
of the minor divisions of the christian family, whose influence is com- 
paratively unimportant, I know not any one of the large compacted 
churches, which has formally recorded in their standards of faith 
and discipline, an indignant denunciation of slavery, except the Presby- 
terian church. 



When it was resolved to adopt our present ecclesiastical organiza- 
tion, the Confession of Faith, Catechisms, and Book of Discipline were 
ordered to be published, that all persons might know the doctrines 
and forms of the church, in the most authentic manner. The ques- 
tion of slavery was discussed, and alas ! against their consciences, the 
northern brethren entered into a compromise with the slaveholders, 
something hke the federal compact, and agreed to tolerate the highest 
possible iniquity, rather than dissolve the Presbyterian confederacy. 
Yet, the understandings, sensibilities, and consciences of many revolted 
against that perfidious departure from godliness; and, to pacify the 
clamor of their minds against this abandonment of truth, they inserted 
the following illustration of slavery,— which the slaveholders permitted 
to stand in the book, being convinced that in practice, it would be only 
a dead letter. 

It is found in all the editions of " the Constitution of the Presbyterian 
Church," printed before the year 1818; and constitutes the note ap- 
pended to the hundred and forty-second question of the larger Cate- 
chism ; — "What are the sins forbidden in the eighth commandment?" 
The answer states, among other sins, man-stealing ! And this is the 
account of that sin officially "ratified and adopted by the Synod of 
New York and Philadelphia, held at Philadelphia, May the sixteenth, 
1788, and continued, by adjournment, until the twenty-eighth of the 
same." Our General Assembl5|||ii5 annotate. 1 Tim. i. 10. "The 
law is made for men-stealerS|^ This crime, among the Jews, ex- 
posed the perpetrators of it to capital punishment; Exodus xxi. 16; 
he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he he found in his hand, 
he shall surely he put to death : and the apostle here classes them with 
sinners of the first rank. The word he uses, in its original import 
comprehends all who are concerned in bringing any of the human race 
into slavery, or detaining them in it. Hominum fures, qui servos vel 
liberos abducunt, retinent, vendunt, vel emunt. STEALERS OF 
MEN ARE ALL THOSE WHO BRING OFF SLAVES OR 
FREEMEN, AND KEEP, SELL, OR BUY THEM. To steal a 
freeman, says Grotius, is the highest kind of theft. In other instances we 
only steal human property, but when we steal or retain men in slavery, 
we steal those, who, in common with ourselves, are constituted by the 



original grant, lords of the earth. Genesis i. 28. God blessed them, 
and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth 
and subdue it ; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over 
the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the 
earth. Vide Poli synopsin in loco." 

This vv^as the authorized doctrine of the Presbyterian church, on 
the subject of slavery, from the meeting of the first General Assem- 
bly, in 1789, until the General Assembly of 1818, when that body 
determined that the note above quoted was no part of the belief and 
doctrine of the Presbyterian church. In reply to this fallacy, it must 
be observed, that every minister ordained prior to that meeting, solemnly 
declared his assent to the constitution of the church as it then existed, 
not as it was altered by that fearful body. The question is not so much, 
however, whether that doctrine be obligatory upon all Presbyterians, 
merely because it is found in the constitution of their church; but 
whether it is the decision of the oracles of God ; and I maintain that 
it is infallibly correct. 

It has been often stated, and I know not how the heinous allega- 
tion can be disproved, that our church is mainly chargeable with the 
guilt of slavery in the United States. The proposition is thus de- 
clared. On the fourth of July, 1776, every person then in the United 
States, or who should afterwards be born in them, was pronounced 
free, from the very fact of his bear^ig the characters of man, and in 
the undisputed possession of certain inalienable rights. After a contest 
of seven years, the truth was recognized by all the European nations ; 
and the country was entirely delivered from foreign control. Notwith- 
standing the national declaration, all the colored people were inhibited 
by force, from asserting or obtaining their ^Unalienable rights." 

During the revolutionary contest, most of the religious denomina- 
tions had become so scattered and disorganized, that there was no 
union, and scarcely any intercourse among the members. The Pres- 
byterians alone maintained, in some measure, their compactness of 
organization, and immediately after the peace, resumed their usual 
meetings, with an imposing influence. The question of slavery was 
early agitated; but "the fear of man, which bringeth a snare," swayed 
the Synod. All the southern states combined, at that period, probably 



did not contain one tenth part of the Presbyterian church. Nothing, 
therefore, could have been more easy, than to have fulfilled the claims 
of christian equity, and to have told the slaveholders— We cannot con- 
scientiously, we dare not scripturally acknowledge you to be christians 
and Presbyterians. You must quit man-stealing, or we cannot hold 
gospel fellowship with you. Instead of this plain, honest dealing, the 
people of that day entered upon a course of expediency, prudence, and 
carnal policy. They first denied their own principles, by acknowl- 
edging that a person is not born free; and then, by holding out in prac- 
tice the atrocious error, that a slaveholder is an acceptable follower of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, they opened the flood-gates of all possible 
iniquity: because this topic is decided, not by the standard of truth 
revealed in the scriptures, but according to the ever-shifting principles 
of "men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, who suppose 
that gain is godliness." 

Will slaveholding professors of religion, and preachers, hear with 
any degree of patience and candor, a just application of the princi- 
ples of natural justice and of the great law of love, to the crime of 
slaveholding? Like all other persevering sinners, they hate the light, 
neither come to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved. And 
can christian charity receive men who are thus persisting in the highest 
kind of theft, as true disciples of Jesus the Son of God ? 

All persons acquainted with the southern states well Imow that slavery 
i.« there the grand source of infidelity; that slaveholding professors of 
religion are an insuperable stumbling-block to men of reflection and 
conscience, who are opposed to slavery; and that slavery constitutes 
an almost impassable barrier to the progress of the light and the truth 
as It is in Jesus. It is in vain any longer to palliate or conceal the 
enormity of this sin— a sin which renders callous the hearts of all who 
apologize for it, and sears as with a hot iron, the consciences of those 
who are guilty of this impious practice. 

From our Confession of Faith, we deduce these prmciples :— 

1. Slaveholdmg, under every possible modification, is man-stealing. 

2. Man-stealing, as combining impiety in principle, falsehood in 
claim, injustice and cruelty without, intermission and without end, is 
the most flagrant iniquity which a sinner can perpetrate. 



3. x\ll profession of religion, by a man wlio thus acts, is a gross 
deception. 

4. The tolerance of such men as preachers and christian profes- 
fessors, is a direct insult to Him who searcheth the hearts and trietli 
the reins of the children of men. 

5. All the pleas of expediency which are offered for this perversion 
of God's truth are not less criminal than they are destructive. 

6. Slavery in the United States can never be abolished as long 
as it is sanctioned and approved by the various denominations of 
christians. 

7. Therefore it is the incumbent duty of every church to excom- 
municate, without delay, all those persons who will not cease to "steal, 
buy, sell, and enslave their fellow-citizens." 

We, as a body of people, stand convicted before the world of rank 
and constant hypocrisy. On several occasions, the questions con- 
nected with slavery have been introduced into the General Assembly ; 
and uniformly the heart-rending subject has been evaded ; or a cold, 
unmeaning, or Jesuistical minute has been recorded, instead of an 
efficient testimony and pungent resolution against sin. Conscientious 
men have asked for a fish, and the temporisers have given us a serpent 
—we have begged gospel bread, and they have given us the stone of 
mammon— we have solicited the egg of truth for our nourishment, 
and they have given us the slaveholder's scorpion to poison our morals 
and benumb our consciences. Forty-four years have passed away ; 
men have pretended to lament the evil, to deplore the national guilt, to 
reprehend the inconsistency of professing gospel honesty, and con- 
stantly performing the villainy of kidnappers ; and nevertheless, the 
crime increases, the hypocrisy extends, and the men-stealers augment 
in the most fearfid manner. 

It is one of the remarkable characters of our age, that the principle 
of liberality extends itself to the greater obliquities, while it denounces 
the lesser sin. No design is formed to institute a comparison between 
the degrees of particular sins ; but surely in ecclesiastical discipline, 
it is evidently unjust to permit the grosser offence to escape with 
impunity, or to be honored, while the inferior transgression receives 
the pouring out of the full vial of indignant censure. 



The Temperance cause is justly eulogized as one of the noblest 
efforts of modern times to redeem the character of mankind from 
debasement ; but it will not be asserted that there is any justice in 
excluding from the church a sober man, otherwise irreproachable, 
because he has not adopted the principle of total abstinence from 
spirituous liquors, and at the same time to recognize the christian pro- 
fession of a man-stdaler. It is presumed that no christian community 
would admit the profession of religion by an avowed gambler, or a 
person habitually profane — why then, it may be asked, are slaveholders 
tolerated in the christian church, who are constantly manifesting an 
irreconcilable contradiction against all that is righteous, true, and 
merciful ? 

We are told that all the practitioners of slavery are enemies to slave^ 
holding, in the abstract ! This assertion is not true ; as is manifest 
from two undeniable facts ; the first is this ; that the slave-drivers make 
no effort to extirpate slavery, and pertinaciously resist every attempt 
to meliorate not only the condition of the slave, but also to elevate the 
character and capacities of the free people of color: and the second 
proof that all professions of dislike to slavery, in the abstract, are 
deceptive, is derived from an every day occurrence ; — when a slave has 
providentially been enabled to escape from the house of bondage, the 
slaveholder, who, contrary to the word of God, the natural conscience of 
man, and the laws of Christianity, claims the human being as his 
property, instead of permitting the slave thus to liberate himself, in 
person, and by his hired kidnappers, will ransack every portion of our 
country, from Eastport to New Orleans, and from Boston to the Mis-^ 
souri, expressly to recover possession of the slave, that the victim 
may be tortured to satiate his revenge. To talk, therefore, of such 
persons being opponents of slavery is most insulting prevarication : 
and yet this abhorrent violation of the divine precept is committed in 
open day, and boasted of and defended by preachers of the gospel, 
as if it was the very cap-stone of christian philanthropy and righteous- 
ness. Therefore, let us hear the word of the Lord. Mark the solemn 
prohibition! Deuteronomy xxviii. 15, 16: "Thou slialt not deliver 
unto his master the servant who is escaped from his master unto thee t 
he shall dwell with thee, even among you, m that place which he shall 



choose, where it liketh him best: tliou shalt not oppress him." Re- 
member the illustration. 1 Samuel, xxx. 11 — 15. "They found an 

Egyptian in the field. And David said unto him, whence art thou? 

And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and 
my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick. And David 
said, canst thou bring me down to this company? And he said, swear 
unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into the 
hands of my master." Well may all these enemies of slavery in the 
abstract, but who are practical kidnappers, tremble at the divine de- 
nunciation ! Obadiah 14, 15. " Neither shouldest thou have stood in 
the crossway, to cut oif those who did escape ; neither shouldest thou 
have delivered up those that did remain in the day of distress ; as thou 
hast done it shall be done unto thee ; thy reward shall return upon thine 
own head." 

Our Presbyterian church is unequivocally to be numbered among 
those friends of truth and enemies of ungodliness in the abstract. At 
the period of their present organization in 1788, as appears from the ex- 
tract already quoted, they were theoretical opponents of man-stealing, 
but they recognized the men-stealers as their christian brethren. What 
followed ? The pungent truth remained in the confession a dead letter ; 
and like the book of the law in Josiah's time, when it was discovered in 
1815, it excited universal consternation among the slave-holders who 
never would rest until by their clamors and menaces they intimidated 
the northern brethren in 1818, to consent that it should be expunged. 
On several intermediate occasions, when the subject was presented to 
the General Assembly, and some minute was obliged to be made of the 
reference, to pacify them who desired to " do justly and to love mercy" 
— the Assembly recorded a condemnation of slavery in the abstract, and 
coldly urged the necessity of adopting the means to effect a gradual 
abolition of slavery. The consequence was this ; that the slave-holders 
professed to admit the theory, but the time was not come for a simulta- 
neous movement — and the hardships, the fetters, the degradation, the irre- 
ligion, the ignorance and the anguish of the slaves have increased, " grown 
with their growth, and strengthened with their strength:" and now, at the 

«d of forty-five years, there are undoubtedly forty-five times the number 
slavcholding preachers and elders and members in the Presbyterian 



10 

cliurch 10 those who could have been ciuimcralcd in the month of May, 
1788. This is the resuh of hating slavery in the abstract, and loving it 
in the practice ; and according to the present system, did not the divine 
proclamation, as proved by the signs of the times, plainly declare to that 
grim man-stealing monster ; Thou shalt die ; thy days are nearly ended 
— it might be safely affirmed, that before the lapse of another 45 years, 
the colored people from their vast disproportionate increase would have 
possession of the whole southern section of the Republic ; and this 
would be the effect principally of the sanction given to slavery by those 
temporizing christians, who, when they see a man-thief consent with 
him, because they hate instruction and cast the words of the Lord behind 
them. Psalm 1. 16—21. 

There is yet a much more alarming view of this subject in its chris- 
tian reference. Many colored persons are acknowledged and believed 
to be subjects of converting grace, and yet they are property, debased 
as slaves, and even bought and sold as beasts by their nominal fellow- 
christians, probably even members of the same society of professed be- 
lievers. This is the climax of all the atrocities connected with the sys- 
tem of slavery. A man or woman whose principles are settled by tlie 
oracles of God, and whose consciences are directed by the gospel, will 
command a much larger sum of money on account of the spiritual gifts 
with which they are endowed ; and the owner of this property, as he 
is scandalously termed, can safely calculate upon a large additional bo- 
nus for the faithfulness and integrity of a slave actuated by the heaven- 
born feelings of a genuine disciple of the Friend of sinners. These 
christians are tortured, and trafficked, and deprived of all comfort, relig- 
ious instruction and earthly hope, by their professed fellow-christians, 
with equal indifference as if they were worn out horses, and as if no hu- 
man sensibility and no gospel emotion had ever quickened their souls; 
and thus these slaveholding professors exhibit their hatred of slavery 
in the abstract. 

This deceivableness is rendered more repulsive, and the iniquity more 
flagrant, by the continuous implied or actual promises which' are made 
by all parties, to desist from their ungodly course. The last minute 
of the General Assembly was made, I believe, in the year 1818. It 
professes to be a full exposition of the sentiments of that ecclesias- 



fical body, upon the subject of slavery; and was promulged expressly 
to conceal their other proceeding, the erasure of the note appended 
to the hundred and forty-second question of the larger Catechism, 
already quoted. In their address to the churches, the General As- 
sembly declare that, " the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human 
race, by another, is utterly incoiisistent with the law of God, and totally 
irreconcilable with the spirit of the gospel of Christ. The evils to 
tvhich the slave is always exposed, often take place in fact, in their very 
worst degree and form. It is manifestly the duty of all christians, 
to use their honest, earnest, and unwearied endeavors, as speedily as 
possible, to efface this blot of our holy religion, and to obtain the 
complete abolition of slavery.^'' 

The General Assembly then exhort all Presbyterians "to increase 
their exertions to effect a total abolition of slavery, and to suffer no 
greater delay than the public vsrelfare truly and indispensably demands." 
They also vi^arn their churches " against unduly pretending the plea of 
necessity, as a cover for the love and practice of slavery, or a pretence 
for not using all efforts that are lawful and practicable, to extinguish 
the evil." They recommend religious instruction and Sabbath schools 
for the slaves; and prohibit cruelty to the slaves, — the forcible separa- 
tion of families, and the selling of slaves to persons who will deprive 
them of religious blessings. Since that period fifteen years have elapsed; 
and what has been done ? Has " the very worst degree and form" of 
slavery been amended ? To use the language of the General Assembly, 
has any one of "all the hardships and injuries which inhumanity and 
avarice may suggest," ceased to be inflicted? Have slaveholding 
ministers, elders, or members of the Presbyterian church "used their 
honest, earnest, and unwearied endeavors to obtain the complete abo- 
lition of slavery?" Has there been "no delay?" Have they "in- 
creased their exertions to eflfect a total abolition of slavery ?" Name the 
slaveholder who has facilitated and encouraged the instruction of slaves 
in the principles and duties of the christian religion, according to the 
gospel of Christ, without slavery notes and evasive comments ? Where 
is that slaveholder, either in the church or out of it, who iniquitously 
grasps his fellow-citizens as his property, that will not sell a man or 
woman, boy or girl, at any time, if his "inhmnanity and avarice" can 



12 

be satisfied ? What Church Session, and what Presbytery ever took 
cognizance of any man for "all cruelty of every kind, in the treatment 
of slaves, or for selling christians, the purchase of the gracious Re- 
deemer's agonies, like horses, sheep, and hogs?" No Church Session, 
no Presbytery, no Synod, and no General Assembly dare to call to 
account the preacher who exchanges a man for a horse, or a woman 
for a ram ; or the elder who scourges a man's wife in the last stage of 
pregnancy, until her life is endangered; or the member who ties up a 
youth, and whips him till he expires almost immediately after his 
release from the barbarity of his inhuman task-master ? Church Ses- 
sions, Presbyteries, and Synods of slaveholders take no notice of these 
acts, performed as the General Assembly say, by " the ?jiost virtuous 
part of the community, who abhor slavery,^'' — all their "harsh censures, 
uncharitable reflections, and discountenancing by discipline and sus- 
pension from the church," are directed and enforced against the preacher 
or member who has the hardihood to delineate, in his own genuine char- 
acter, "the christian broker in his trade of blood." This state of things 
cannot much longer continue. France, with all her infidel levity, is 
now arranging a project for the universal and immediate emancipation of 
every slave in her colonies. Respecting British colonial slaveiy, the 
mandate has already gone forth, and all the powers of earth cannot 
resist the plenary execution of it, " this year thou shalt die." And ere 
seven years have revolved, no free-bom American citizen will be held 
as property. The flood has set in, and nothing can stem the force 
of the current. Now, then, is the time for the church to "arise and 
shine ; to awake and put on strength ; to put on her beautiful gar- 
ments, like the holy city, that the uncircumcised and unclean may no 
more come into her." The command of God is not less imperative 
to us, and the implied promise no less suitable, than to Jerusalem. 
"Shake thyself from the dust; arise and sit down; loose thyself from 
the bands of thy neck, captive daughter of Zion." Isaiah lii. 1, 2. 
The American churches, and especially our own, wear the collar of 
the slaveholders, and are led captive by those who are constantly 
violating " the most precious and sacred rights of human nature,"" — 
all whose life is ^^ utterly inconsistent with the law of God, — and all 
whose opinions and actions are "totally irreconcilable with the spirit 
and principles of the gospel of Christ." 



13 

Christian brethren ! This is the doctrine of the Presbyterian churcli, 
thus attested : "Passed by the unanimous vote of the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian church, in the United States, Philadelphia, 2nd 
June," 1818, and signed by their order by J.J. Janeway, Moderator." 
Now then for the application of the subject. I appeal to your con- 
sciences and your sincerity. How can you longer tolerate the wicked 
inconsistency of acknowledging as followers of the meek and lowly 
Jesus, who came to seek and save the lost, men who are wilfully 
obdurately, and constantly guilty of "a gross violation of the most 
precious and sacred rights of human nature ?" This is om authorized 
description of slaveiy. Is it not just as rational, and as fraught with 
good sense, to say that a sleepless pirate is an exemplary just man and 
philanthropist? How can you sanction before the world, the astound- 
ing and mischievous anomaly, that men and women, whose lives are 
obstinately and " utterly inconsistent with the law of God," are faith- 
ful servants of Him who came to do the will of God, whose meat 
it was to do the will of Him that sent Him ; who was sent to heal the 
broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to set at liberty 
them that are bruised; and who left us an example, that we should 
follow his steps? How can a resolute and hardened disobedience to 
the law of God be palmed upon the world as the offspring of "pure 
religion and undefiled," and as exemplifying the attributes of " the most 
virtuous part of the community," who, we are assured by the General As- 
sembly, "abhor slavery, and wish its extermination as sincerely as any 
others"— which abhorrence of slavery they constantly prove by their 
calmnny and persecution of all who strive for its extinction, and which 
wish " to extinguish the evil" they develope, by increasing the number 
of their slaves as fast as they can possibly be muhiplied. Grosser 
theoretical and practical contradictions cannot be found in the annals 
of hypocrisy. 

How can you continue to recognize as acceptable members of the 
Presbyterian church, and disciples of Jesus, the supreme liberator, 
men all whose feelings, acts and determinations are inveterately and 
" totally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the gospel of 
Christ ?" How can you justify yourselves before the Judge of all for 
this consummate duplicity ? How can you possibly lull your con- 



14 

sciences wliilc guilty of this tremendous " all deceivablcness of unright- 
eousness ?" You say, " the slave is always exposed to evils in their 
very worst degree and form, from the hands of a master vv^ho may inflict 
upon him all the hardships and injuries which inhumanity and avarice 
may suggest" — you know, that all these evils are perpetually realized by 
colored christians, and from the hands of the officers and members of 
our church; and yet the task master meets w^ith no censure, no interrup- 
tion, no discipline and no suspension, but is caressed, flattered, digni- 
fied with imposing titles, and not only journeys on to eternity with a pal- 
pable lie in his right hand, but blindfold leads his willingly deceived 
flock also to the judgment of God, there too late to learn that hu- 
man expediency and carnal policy only receive the accursed doom which 
the Son of God will denounce against " the fearful, the unbelieving, and 
whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." Revelation xxi. 8, 27 ; and xxii. 
14, 15. 

The Synod of New York and Philadelphia, in the year 1787, pro- 
mulged similar doctrines and injunctions; they were occasionally repeat- 
ed, until the year 1818 — then in an elaborate form the subject was con- 
cocted ; and we have already seen, slavery was denounced as unchris- 
tian ; speedy abolition urged ; all delay branded as hypocrisy and a 
cloak for sin ; the immediate melioration of the degraded state of the 
people of color recommended ; and church Sessions and Presbyteries 
were enjoined, to exercise discipline, censure and suspend all transgres- 
sions of justice and benevolence, so far as equity and kindesss can be 
exhibited, by a slaveholder. Fifteen years have revolved, and what has 
been achieved ? Not one single object so pompously enumerated by the 
General Assembly. 

What preacher resounds the duty to abolish slavery, what minister 
of the gospel puts away the stumbhng block of his iniquity ? The Pres- 
byterian church, so far as slavery is concerned, has neither " ceased to 
do evil, nor learnt to do well. They have neither washed nor made 
themselves clean, nor put away the evil of their doings from be- 
fore the eyes of the Lord. The oppressed are not relieved; the 
fatherless are not judged ; they smite with the fist of wickedness. 
The bands of wickedness are not loosed; the heavy burdens arc 
not imdone ; the oppressed go not free ; the yoke is not broken ; 



15 

tiiey deal not iheir bread to the hungry ; the cast out poor they bring 
not to their house ; they cover not the naked ; and they hide themselves 
from their own flesh." Isaiah i. 16, 17; and Ivii. 4—7. Well, there- 
fore, may w^e dread lest the Lord should speedily say of us as he did of 
the Jev^rs, "When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes 
from you; when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands 
are full of blood. Bring no more vain oblations; — the calling of assem- 
blies I cannot away with ; it is iniquity even the solemn meeting. — 
They are a trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear them. If ye be 
willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land ; but if ye refuse 
and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the 
Lord hath spoken it." Isaiah i. 10 — 20. It is self evident that the 
long suffering of God, and the patience of man, in reference to slavery, 
are nearly exhausted. Slavery must and slavery will be abolished, in 
this union, within seven years. " The wild and guilty fantasy, that one 
man is the property of another," cannot longer be defended, except by 
men who have abandoned all moral sensibilities and conscience, and 
who have become incorrigible in transgression. There is not an intel- 
ligent reflecting person upon earth, who does not even instantly perceive 
that slaveholding and Christianity, as our General Assembly truly main- 
tain, are " utterly inconsistent, and totally irreconcilable." No alterna- 
tive exists ; either the sanctuary must be cleansed, prior to the abolition 
of slavery, or it will be overwhelmed in the overthrow of the system. 
If our brethren, who are slaveholders, are solicitous to verify their title 
to Christianity, and to demonstrate that they are sincere in their abhor- 
rence of slavery and their wish for its extermination, let them come 
forward now, and by their voluntary act, obey God rather than man, 
and abolish slavery, every one for himself. Let others do as they 
please ; it his duty, without delay, to effect the abolition of slavery. 
He must proclaim liberty to his o^vn captives ; then we will hail him 
as a penitent simier who has brought forth "the fruits of righteous- 
ness;" but if he gripes the descendants of the kidnapped Africans, until 
the mandate of Omnipotence has crimibled the shackles of slaveiy into 
impalpable dust — we shall hold his Christianity, even then, as of no 
more sterling value than now. He would be exactly in the situation 
of a felon, who, having robbed the bank, upon liis discovery, is 



16 

forcibly divested of his plunder, and so situated, that he can steal no 
more. Just such will be the coerced honesty of every slaveholding 
professor of religion, who pertinaciously refuses to emancipate his 
slaves, until resistless authority, in some mode, hinders him from longer 
grasping the produce of their toil, and their most precious and sacred 
rights." 

Now then, brethren, to your duty. Every thing claims that you 
immediately "efface that blot of our holy religion," slavery, from the 
church. Banish all the pleas of expediency, and substitute gospel 
honesty. Cast away "the fear of man, which bringeth a snare," and 
put your trust in the Lord ; then shall you be safe. Enjoin upon the 
slaveholders, within a short definite period, to emancipate their slaves; 
or, if they refuse, assure them that they shall be excluded from the 
church. Put not off to the uncertain future your present obligations. 
Half a generation has passed away since the General Assembly met in 
1818 ; hundreds of thousands of slaves have accused us before the throne 
of God ; and tens of thousands of christian men-stealers have already 
answered for the " hardships, injuries, and evils, in their worst degree 
and form, which their inhumanity and avarice suggested and inflicted !" 
Remember Lot's wife ! She lingered, and loved Sodom in preference 
to the word of God, and yet remains an awful monument of that pro- 
crastination which cries, " To-morrow .'" — while God thunders in our 
hearing, " To-day !" 

PRESBYTER. 

Neiv York, April 16, 1883. 



54 


















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